HOBOKEN -- Hoboken is something to aspire to. Packed into a mile-square city are numerous transportation options, restaurants, parks, bars, landmarks, waterfront views, and thousands of young people who enjoy moving here after college, not to mention families who raise their kids here.

Now, even towns in the suburbs of Manhattan believe that Hoboken is something to aspire to.

According to column in the Journal-News, based in White Plains, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano said at a "Generation Yonkers" news conference last week that with any luck, Yonkers could be the next Hoboken.

According to the column, linked here, "Spano suggests Yonkers can get younger and hipper like Hoboken and parts of gentrified Brooklyn."

The column notes, "At his Generation Yonkers news conference, Spano said Yonkers could be the next Hoboken, New Jersey, formerly known as a town of tough stevedores where the term 'night life' meant getting your nose busted in a bar fight. For most of the 20th century Hoboken had one main export: people. The city's population went from more than 70,000 to 33,297 in an 80-year period. For the past 20 years or so, it has undergone, well, a renaissance, and its population is up to 52,000."

Spano is hoping that Yonkers will see an influx of artists in the near future, too.

Now, what about Manhattan? With any luck, Manhattan can become more like Hoboken, too.